Abuse The Cloaking System

BroodeBroode Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9605Members
<div class="IPBDescription">The Legitimate Way...</div> Some of you may have noticed that while cloaked, you may be able to perform certain actions and still remain cloaked. As far as I can tell, this occurs when performing any action slow enough that the game doesn't recognise that you are moving.

This means that, while cloaked, you can leap, blink, bite, spore, primal scream, umbra, or basically do anything as long as there is long enough gap between your actions. This leaves many tactical opportunities to a clever skulk with cloaking and leap. You could leap past turrets, stand next to the turret factory and, while still remaining cloaked, bite it to death (although EXTREMELY slowly).

A clever lerk can cloak inside the enemy base and then lay down spores at will, as long as he does it slowly. In fact, with a bit of patience, you can walk around when cloaked, taking one step at a time and pausing every so often. A retreating onos could run into a room, cloak and slowly walk back out into the hallway, confusing the hell out of any marines that saw you run into the room and tried to follow you.

As far as this looks like an exploit, its actually considered a valid tactic. I tried posting this in the bug forum before coming here, and receved a PM back that specifically stated that this is a feature of the cloaking system, although an undocumented one. The marines have their counters to this tactic too; observatories, motion tracking and the sensor sweep.

Its not a tactic to base your whole playing style around, but it is useful to keep in mind, just in case the situation is begging for it (huge walls of sentries come to mind... sentries cant hit cloaked aliens <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--> ).

Comments

  • KillymageeKillymagee Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3136Members
    meh I've noticed this too but by the time (usually) I get cloak its the later part of the game and Im spamming the marine's base with acid rockets and preparing for the finish. But sometimes theres a fool that puts the sensory chamber's up first so its fun to mess around with. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • bitninebitnine Join Date: 2002-11-19 Member: 9283Members
    Yeah, it's a good way for something like a skulk to sneak up to a vulnerable spot on a turret factory, but I've found that most times by the time my team has sensory I'm up to Fade and using Bile Bomb to take down structures.
  • SoulSkorpionSoulSkorpion Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 423Members
    Cool. I was wondering about this <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • InjuryInjury Mahou Shoujo Join Date: 2002-11-10 Member: 7992Banned
    It is pretty nifty, though cloaking comes in so late game on most public servers it just doesn't give you enough time to fool around with it enough. Same with all the Sensory upgrades, I suppose. I've fired three Parasites rapidly before and haven't decloaked, though the fourth one got me splattered all over the cargo bay.
  • WraithmanWraithman Join Date: 2002-11-14 Member: 8600Members
    I think as far as firing a weapon goes, you dont uncloak if you hit the enemy... at least i think you have less of a chance to.. your ROF also has something to do with it but i find that if im cloaked and parasiting things, if i dont fire them too fast and if i hit what im shooting, then i usually dont uncloak... i've also found that spores dont always uncloak you either.. i am curious to see exactly how they determine how you are uncloaked, cause i've just nudged forward slightly to see down a tunnel before and uncloaked, but i've also run about 5 meters and stopped and stayed cloaked the whole time so im kinda confused.
  • Paladyne-TPFPaladyne-TPF Join Date: 2002-11-08 Member: 7762Members
    The best description I've heard is that you have an invisible "cloaking pool" that regens the same way your adrenaline does. Any movement or attacks drain that pool, and when your pool empties you decloak. This means that you can move or attack for short periods of time, just as long as it's not sustained and you wait a little bit before moving or attacking again. If you pause for a good long while before doing anything, you can actually get off several attacks (3 max I think) or a good amount of movement without decloaking, although you'll have to wait quite awhile before doing it again.
  • WheatevoWheatevo Join Date: 2002-11-17 Member: 9074Members
    If you have an Onos and cloaking, you can manage to paralyze marines and remain cloaked. I've also run into the problem of shooting over three in short succession and uncloaking. This does seem to be the limit.
  • WindelkronWindelkron Join Date: 2002-04-11 Member: 419Members
    I don't know, it always seems to me that it disappears when I use any of my weapons. I was cloaked on the ceiling and parasited someone, he looked straight up and wasted me. it sucked, so I don't try it anymore <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
  • Neo_GhostNeo_Ghost Join Date: 2002-11-24 Member: 9832Members
    Wow I never new you could attack in cloak. Now you said that thats ok since theres a limit to all actions in claok but there is another thing about that. There is a way to run around in cloak. yes <b>RUN</b> around. Now I know some one else posted about that and I was wondering if that is considered bad? I know how to do it but I wont mention how to do it just in case. It is pretty funny to be an onos and run around a paranoid marine then to pop out behind them without them noticing. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> Any way i wanted to know if thats wrong and if so, I shall never do it again. I'll see if I can get a screeny tomarrow if i get a chance.
  • Teufel_EldritchTeufel_Eldritch Join Date: 2002-01-28 Member: 124Members
    Yes that is considered bad as it it taking advantage of a exploit.
  • 13NSPlayer13NSPlayer Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8878Members
    What exploit? didn't you read? someone posted this as a bug, but got pmed back that it's not a bug, that it's an undocumented tactic.
  • ONE-ARMONE-ARM Join Date: 2002-07-03 Member: 872Members
    NSplayer Teufel was refering to Neo Ghost's thing which IS an exploit. It is a different thing than what was refered to by Broode
  • Lt_Jose_JimenezLt_Jose_Jimenez Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9170Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--(13)NSPlayer+Nov 24 2002, 10:38 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> ((13)NSPlayer @ Nov 24 2002, 10:38 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What exploit? didn't you read? someone posted this as a bug, but got pmed back that it's not a bug, that it's an undocumented tactic.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    haha, that is common reply when you report a Windows bug to Microsoft <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

    It cannot be an undocumented tactic since it clashes with NS manual, in which it's stated that you remain cloaked until you move or use your abilities (it's not close at hand so i cannot quote it)
  • bitninebitnine Join Date: 2002-11-19 Member: 9283Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Lt. Jose Jimenez+Nov 25 2002, 11:33 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Lt. Jose Jimenez @ Nov 25 2002, 11:33 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->It cannot be an undocumented tactic since it clashes with NS manual, in which it's stated that you remain cloaked until you move or use your abilities (it's not close at hand so i cannot quote it)<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Then I guess using Redemption with onos must be an exploit, too.

    Hell, the manual says that the "level 5 behemoth alien" can't use redemption. The simple fact is that the manual is out of date, sketchy, and somewhat inaccurate. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

    If the devs have said that its intended (or even unintended but fine), then it's kosher. In the end, the devs decide what's an exploit and what's not, and I don't expect them to immediately run and update the manual to reflect their every decision. That would probably be a waste of their time.
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